Walt Disney World Disney's Animal Kingdom Discussion Thread

[JT3000]

Yeah, it's mostly repetitive tunnels & caverns mixed with pretty boring outside areas once you actually get on the ride. Hopefully they plant more vegetation and add some more details, because right now, it somewhat resembles Thunder Mountain.

 

I can't tell if you're serious or not DATman, because you've been doing a lot of JT3000 whoring. When's the marrige?

 

What's this whoring you speak of? I'm nobody's whore, thank you very much. As for Datman, looked like spam to me... but maybe I missed something.

[robbalvey]

I've been reading a lot of the TR's and opinions and I just wanted to say one thing.....

 

I know a lot of you didn't like that ride. And that's fine. You're entitled to your opinion and I'm very glad you've posted them. But don't flame or bash other people because they either liked the ride or are still looking forward to it.

 

I've seen a lot of snide comments from the "EE Haters" using the rolling eyes or other smilies.

 

Basically, no one is "wrong" for having an opinion, whether that opinion is loving it, hating it, or looking forward to it.

 

'Nuff said.

 

--Robb

[Slacking]

Robb, I'm sure I'm one of the few "haters" who you referred to, and I regret the comment I made, but lemme clarify myself a bit.

 

I didn't hate the ride and I actually haven't seen any reviews that completely tear the ride apart. I almost feel like I (and maybe others) have come across as hating the ride more than we really did because we did have a few issues with it. IMO, its not a great ride, but it is a good ride. That being said, it could have and should have been better. I know they're trying to tell a story (which doesn't come across as super clear) but I feel that as a coaster, it is fairly weak. Besides the backwards portion, the coaster just isn't very exciting or fun (but I did like the fun little portion between the lift hills.)

 

Its great that people are looking foward to it, but they still need to be careful about hyping it up too much. Its nice though that DAK finally has a much needed new ride.

 

And all that being said, I would definitely give the coaster another chance when the times come, whenever that may be (My AP just expired and I really don't have the cash to renew or visit WDW any time soon.)

[robbalvey]

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but my good friend and old co-worker Kevin Yee over at MiceAge has posted a really nice review of EE:

http://www.miceage.com/kevinyee/ky012706a.htm

 

I highly reccomend everyone checking it out.

 

--Robb

[Hattuchili]

^ That was really good, Robb! Thanks for posting the link! Te pictures were good and showed us a great view to everything! WOW, only 6 or 7 weeks and I have the chance to ride EE!

 

--Sören

[maliboomer]

The best front seat POV I've seen with totally unnesscary yeti slowdown is at http://mousegeeks.com/video/mousegeekseverest.wmv .

[Erik Johnson]

Yeah I was finally able to get a front seat ride and he was right in that you can see a couple of pocketfulls of light that "showed off" some of the track structure in the backwards section. I did not notice any of this when I sat near the middle or back part of the train. Also I am sure in a year's time the vegetation around the beginning of the ride will look more grown.

[hyyyper]

So is it open yet?, cos rcdb.com says it is still under construction....?

 

[Spideyfreak]

It's open to Annual Passholders only.

[hyyyper]

k, and when will it open then?

[Swimace]

Right now it's in a soft openning period. Everybody who goes to Animal Kingdom has a chance of getting on the ride, although there's no telling which days it will be running.

 

The official Disney statement regarding Everest:

 

"Expedition EVEREST: The Legend of the Forbidden Mountain, will officially open April 7. Disney's

Animal Kingdom Theme Park guests will be able to get a sneak "peak" at Expedition Everest beginning

in early February during regular park hours; however, the ride may not always be operational."

[America Sings Freak]

Hey everyone! I was wondering if anyone knows anything about it.

Okay here is what I know:

 

It was going to be part of Animal Kingdom

 

It was going to be like a fairytale land

 

It was going to have two sides evil and happy

 

They were going to have a coaster with a dragon that looks like the one at DLP and mutant bats

 

there was part of it already started when the project stopped

 

I heard a rumor that when the park originally opened there was a boat tour and you could see fire coming out of a cave.

 

The coaster was supposed to have some kind of medevil theme

 

50th post

[Wes]

http://www.mouseplanet.com/mark/mg041013.htm

 

http://www.jimhillmedia.com/article.php?id=1137

[SharkTums]

Yeah, and it was supposed to have JOURNEY!!!

[Erik Johnson]

As far as I know it never got much further than the planning stages.

[Hattuchili]

I have never heard something about it, but now I found a few details about the beastly kingdom: http://members.tripod.com/~SaitoNews/beastly.html !!! I looks nice, to sad they havn´t built it till now!

 

--Sören

[Wes]

Everest is sort of the mutated inbred child that Beastlie Kingdomme turned into. It features a mythical creature (the yeti) and is a roller coaster (the major ride that was supposed to be in BK). That's probably the closest we'll get to it for a long time.

[Homer]

Tis a shame this was shelfed, Animal Kingdom could still use a bit more "zip", Everest is a good start.

 

Weren't they going to do this in 2002 or so for that craptacular "Reign of Fire" movie?

[Cerberus]

On a slightly off-topic note, I picked up on this sentence in the JimHilMedia article...

 

For the Discovery River ride, this meant that the attraction would go from actually showing guests a full sized fire breathing dragon to merely suggesting that there was one hidden somewhere in that cave at water's edge.

 

Sounds like exactly what they did on the Paris Studios park's "Studio Tram Tour" attraction. There's a massive set straight from the "reign of fire" film, promising all sorts of stunning dragon-themed effects...

but no, you just get a growl and a shot of fire. No dragon.

 

They must kill off SOOO many awesome ideas at the point where price tags come into question... =(

[ECZenith]

What's interesting was this land was supposed to have both a dragon and a Kraken. Both ideas showed up years later, mere miles away.

 

As far as Journey, I remember seeing concept art showing off what they called a "lava worm". It didn't look anything like TDS' version.

 

Too bad we'll most likely never see a Journey in FL.

[CoasterEricHP]

Apparently Dueling Dragons was supposed to be part of Animal Kingdom.. I'm not sure how much truth there is to that, but there are dragons on the benchs, and the original saying was "Real, Imaginary, and Extinct".

 

When I worked at Dragons I was told that Disney had some issues with the designer and rejected the idea... if you never knew.. there are a lot of "hidden Mickeys" on Dragons. They are way too blatent to not be in my opinion. Here's a picture of them on the train, and there are also three bolts on top of the gray supports in the transfer track that are way to perfect not to be intended.

 

Eric

[DATman]

^It was actually not supposed to be Dueling Dragons. But a lot of the people that worked on the land went on th Universal, and Dragon Tower may have inspired DD, but it was not ment to be in AK.

[Jew]

I have heard from a couple of different people that Lost Continent was originally thought of for Animal Kingdom before it eventually ended up at IoA.

 

Don't know if that is really true, but it wouldn't suprise me at all. WDI was laying off people like crazy during the same time IoA was in the design/construction phases of its life...

[JT3000]

Lost Continent has nothing to do with animals besides DD. So I seriously doubt it.

[BorisTF]

Lost Continent doesn't, but a lost continent theme could feature almost any type of mythical craeture you care to think of, therefore has an almost limitless supply of animals to choose from